Jeff Faraudo

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link doesn’t seem to work for me. maybe it’s because it’s a mac, but it does pop up as a windows media player window, but then just says “connecting.” maybe it hasn’t started yet? i’ll keep trying.

rollonubears

it’s workin! go bears.

rollonubears

these announcers are just a hair better than “boom goes the dynamite.” nice to be in english, though. they’re basically just thinking random thoughts out loud.

hey, did the sproul drum circle guys make the trip out there, too?

Uh Huh!

Woopie.
Last 6 minutes.
This is great fun!

rollonubears

Nice to get a W. Lots to work on after watching how they finished that one out. I think they had about 6 turnovers in the last few minutes, and 3 traveling violations. Sloppy on both sides, but still fun to watch.

Well, when I came in to it at the end, I wasn’t exactly sure who was on the floor. I saw Rossi, Thurman, Smith, Powers, and some other guy I didn’t recognize – maybe it was Behrens.

Cal had a 4 or 5 pt lead after Smith went 2-2 from the FT line.
Then I saw some ugly offense. Cobbs was trying to do too much, be too flashy with passes that were knocked away in the lane. Sloppy. The 2nd one was taken by the other team.
Then as they came down on O, Cobbs did a poor job of picking his man up off a pick and roll and allowed him to step into the paint for a jumper. This gave the Bears a 1 pt deficit.

But then, Cobbs had the ball at the top of the key and rather than looking for anyone else, simply pulled up a 3, and the Bears were back on top.

The other team wasn’t doing much on O.

Smith drove and got fouled, another 2-2 from the line.
Solomon got his hand out in front of a pass above the FT line, batted it, and it turned into fast break dunk.

Opponent called TO with about 2:30 to go.

Now having settled into the game and figuring out who was who (near haircuts, equipment issues), I noticed that Cal came out of the TO with what I figure was it’s A team finishing lineup: Cobbs, Smith, Crabbe, Solomon, Thurman. Keep in mind that Kamp and Gut have been hampered with injuries.

A couple interesting things of note during a few timeouts:
* Home reffing (a couple questionable calls, such as travel on Solo)
* Grey rubberized floor with all sorts of lines drawn about. Odd.
* US and Swedish flag hanging on the wall behind one basket. Cool.
* US style cheer leaders assembling at midcourt for gymnastic flips of girls perched high above one another. This was high school or JV high school quality – not college quality. But I, and the crowd, appreciated their little show.

Notes for the end:
* Thurman traveled.
* Smith missed first of 2 FT’s after other team went over his back on a rebound attempt.
* Thurman played the whole time I watched (6:30).
* Cobb got the ball stolen just inside halfcourt as the other team was desperate to create something. It was obvious they’d be coming, disappointing to me that he didn’t take better care of that obvious pressure. And then, instead of running back and playing D, he looked to the Cal bench as if to say that was a ripoff, and the Swedes came down and made a bucket. Maybe you think they fouled you, but don’t plead to your coach. PLAY DEFENSE!

What I learned:
* Cobbs may have size and more offense than Smith, but Smith is better mentally trained in the finer details of the game. Coach Allocco would allow nothing but precisely that.
* Thurman appears to be on the precipice of getting lots of playing time. Behrens and Kravich are BRAND NEW so I won’t look for much right away. Bak was gone all summer and doesn’t even get to go on this trip. That means Thurman is the 3rd man at the 4 or 5 spot on the floor behind Kamp and Solomon. And I believe this is his 3rd year with the program.

The most interesting thing I saw:
At the end of the game. the Swedes had 2 FT’s. Dude shot BOTH of them off the backboard and BOTH went in. Like, I’ve seen big fellas (Shaq) miss a FT long, only to make it (and everyone laughs). But I honestly think this guy shoots ALL his free throws that way. You’ve GOT to be kidding!

The Swedes made a long 2 and a 3 very late in the game. Cal didn’t close out. Then they got inside and got an And-1 on a rebound put back with 6 seconds left. Would they try to miss and put in the rebound for a tie? Or make, be down by 1 and foul immediately? They tried for the make, missed, ball out of bounds under the basket off Cal. On the inbound, Swedes got a pretty decent look at the bucket from 3 for the win. But no. Cal rebound and the horn. 2 point win.

Rocko

What was Montgomery doing during all of this?

AKBear

Thanks for the link. Didn’t watch it live, but still it was nice to get a preview of the team.

The team finally has some depth. Saw glimpses of good team chemistry. This pre-preseason will pay dividends as long as players get and stay healthy.

Can’t say much about Jorge and Harper as they were in street threads/warmups the whole time. But this is the right move – can’t risk anything now; these games are meaningless.

Through one half of play:

Behrens surprised with his mobility, but looked a little raw.

Kravish played within his game – he looks to have good passing inspincts.

Cobb was sloppy as others pointed out, but it looks like he can light it up whenever.

Crabbe looked to be in good game form. Popped a three from almost half court as the announcers said.

Solomon might be the most improved. He showed some nice inside jump hooks.

Thurman was wearing the superman cape this eve had a few good easy baskets on cuts to the hoop and cleanups of spillage. Agree